Lucy braves the shave in solidarity with her uncle

A caring schoolgirl has shaved her head in a bid to raise money and awareness after being told her uncle had been diagnosed with cancer.

Lucy Stevenson (8), from Lenzie, decided to brave the chop after her Uncle George (33) shaved his head in advance of receiving his latest bout of chemotherapy for a form of blood cancer called myeloma.

Some of his friends supported him by shaving their own heads and Lucy told her mum that she wanted to join them.

Mum Melanie, who is George’s sister, said: “It was the day Lucy found out that she decided she was going to do it.

“I told her we were going to see uncle George and that he wasn’t very well.

“She sees him quite a lot so she knew he had sore neck and sore ribs so she worked it out herself really that it was cancer from the head shaving.

“She said ‘I’m going to do it too and raise money and raise awareness so I can get more people to sign up’.

“I am surprised obviously because she is eight, but at the same time, she is a very thoughtful little girl - she likes everybody to be happy and she will do everything she can to make that happen.

“It is pretty simple for her, she wants to support George and this is a way to do it.”

Lucy initially set a target of £3,000 but quickly soared past that figure, with her total currently sitting at over £5,200.

On her fundraising page, Lucy explains: “I love my uncle George and I think he’s too young to have cancer, but unfortunately you can never be too young for cancer.

“My uncle George shaved his head because he thought his medicine would make his hair fall out and his friends did it with him. But I want to be like my uncle George and nothing will ever change that.”

As well as raising money for the Anthony Nolan Register she wants to raise awareness of the work they - and the ‘We Delete Blood Cancer Register’ - do in trying to find blood stem cell donors to help treat patients like George.

Often replacing cancerous blood cells through a blood stem cell donation from a matching donor, along with doses of chemotherapy, is their best chance of survival.

Melanie said: “The situation George is in just now is that he doesn’t have a strong match. I’m not a match.

“Registering is quick, easy and could literally save someone’s life so I hope that Lucy’s gesture will encourage others to take action.

“People think that if they are a match it will be some horrific process but it’s equivalent to giving blood for 3/4 hours.”

For information on becoming a blood stem cell donor go to www.dkms.org.uk or www.antonynolan.org